Sometimes when life gives you want you want, you get it from the most unexpected directions. For quite some time I've been complaining that Kathrin Hille of the Financial Times has an unfortunate bias -- intentional or otherwise -- in favor of the KMT. I've also been bitching that there has been no mention at all in the foreign media of how Ma is a product of the KMT party murder-n-loot machine of the 50s-80s, and how the allegations of student spying and his service to the dictator and mass murderer Chiang Ching-kuo have also gone AWOL in the foreign media.No longer. Dated Nov 2,2007. Byline: Kathrin Hille:
In sharp contrast to Frank Hsieh, his rival from the ruling Democratic Progressive party, and others who began their political life as dissidents and human rights lawyers, the KMT candidate owes his political career to the Chiang dynasty.
While studying law at Harvard, Mr Ma was one of the editors of a rightwing Chinese language publication his critics claim was an instrument to report on government critics. On his return to Taipei, he soon started working as a presidential aide.
The link between [dead gangster] Chen [Ch-li] and the KMT has not escaped the DPP. "If . . . you let such a party rule again, what a disaster! They killed in Taiwan, they killed in China," Mr Hsieh said during a recent election campaign appearance.
President Chen Shui-bian has said the government should probe the KMT's past practice of having Taiwanese students abroad spy on fellow students.
Chang Chun-hsiung, premier in the DPP government, has also called on prosecutors to re-open investigations of other unsolved 1980s murder cases believed to be linked to the KMT.
Not only does this article explicitly link Ma to the culture of political killings, it also discusses the KMT's links to organized crime. You don't often see stuff like this in a major foreign media publication. Some good blog love flowing out to Kathrin Hille this day. Thanks, Ms. Hille, you made my week.
[Taiwan] [KMT] [DPP] [Ma Ying-jeou]
6 comments:
This is too good to be true, considering the respect and influence the FT has with international readership.
It's as if her editor said, "Kathrin, we've got word that Hsieh will be the winner, so we need to change our editorial slant so we don't end up looking foolish."
I wish I could believe her heart simply enlarged to match the spirit of the Taiwanese.
Interesting, though I don't understand this sentence: "The link between Chen and the KMT has not escaped the DPP." Is that a mistake or am I reading something incorrectly?
It should be noted that the "Chen" of the second paragraph refers to Chen Chi-li. (I was confused until I followed your link and looked at the original.)
This is unreal.
KMT sound pretty scary!
How is it that the Taiwanese can still support a party that is involved in organized crime, murders of citizens, etc?
Do the people not know about the KMT?
People in Taiwan don't have the most wonderful choice. Depending on one's interpretations, it may be said that the DPP isn't much better in terms of involvement in illegal and gray-area activities.
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